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Switzerland in the age of automatic exchange of banking information

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Re: Switzerland in the age of automatic exchange of banking information

#81

Post by trevyn »

angry_octet wrote: post #63
colechristensen wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It’s a funny fear, because today, being in the US vs. some other developed country takes about 7-8 years off your life. Does it actually? I assume that disparity is more to do with the populations of impoverished people around this very diverse country that can't compare to smaller European countries that just don't have those populations. There is no Mississippi in Germany, those populations are in other countries.…

You would have to be very rich indeed to achieve the same level of cover as is provided in comparable economies (UK/DE/AU etc), because the insurance is expensive and out of pocket costs / copay is high, and you may discover you cannot get or maintain insurance once you develop a chronic condition. But even if you dealt with a broker and crafted a special insurance insurance product to deal with the eventuality of be…

The ACA has removed the pre-existing condition problem, and significantly changed some of the pricing considerations. It’s more affordable now than many are led to believe based on the old structure.

Re: Switzerland in the age of automatic exchange of banking information

#82

Post by [deleted] »

novok wrote: post #22
magduf wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>related : Vancouver BC reaching third most expensive city in the world status a couple of years back, for reasons that have little or nothing to do with local populations What is it due to? I imagine ease of access to Chinese people who want a place to park their savings, plus nice weather, are the biggest factors. After all, all those wealthy Chinese people could just go to another city, like Edmonton, but they don…

- Accessibility to flights - A large chinese community already being there, seeded by the HK hand over to china. The HK wave did not cause a real estate crisis. - Being known as a "good investment" in China. - RE firms that market in china for vancouver. - Most importantly of all, bad enforcement of money laundering and foreign income laws compared to the USA. If money laundering and tax laws were enforced as badly a…

[deleted]

Re: Switzerland in the age of automatic exchange of banking information

#83

Post by benj111 »

nradov wrote: post #18
dbrgn wrote: post #9

To me as a Swiss citizen, born in Switzerland, living in Switzerland, it's an impertinence that every time I open a bank account with a Swiss bank I have to fill out at least 1 form with information about my relation to the US, about my travels in the US and whether I might have to pay taxes there. As a side note, the only other country besides the US that collects taxes based on citizenship and not based on residenc…

Swiss banks are in that position today because some of them engaged in criminal conspiracies to help US customers commit tax fraud. If they want to participate in the US financial system then they have to play by US rules. US citizens residing in other countries can still receive some services and protection from the US federal government. So it's completely fair to tax them for that. We can argue about the value of…

You know there are people who are citizens that have never been to the US. Why should they have to pay to renounce citizenship? If $Forefathers_nationality told you that you were a citizen and that you'd have to pay taxes, how would you feel about that?

Then there's Boris Johnson, British PM, and until recently US citizen. What benefits do you think he would have been getting as a US citizen abroad, over and above diplomatic protections he already had as MP and member of Govt?

Re: Switzerland in the age of automatic exchange of banking information

#84

Post by Svip »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #79
rexreed wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do representatives really and honestly fight for the interests of their constituents or do they simply vote in ideological buckets. Dems with dems and repubs with repubs regardless of where you are? The local interests seem to be subservient to national goals at the federal level. I have yet to see our representatives really fighting for your interests. I'm not seeing much evidence of representative democracy but rat…

They do more than in other countries. Representatives have autonomy to vote as they see fit, without being beholden to the party line, for instance they can vote with their caucus [1]. This is in stark difference to countries like the UK, where MPs have to vote on the party line unless it's declared a conscience vote by the party leader [2]. Voting across party lines in Westminster system parliaments will get you kic…

That's not entirely true. Having the Whip removed was a very unusual move by PM Johnson, which is why it gained so much attention. The US Congress is based on the Westminster system. In effect, MPs are allowed to vote however they feel, but there can be consequences to them voting against the party line.

Which is also the case in the US, the party could run a primary challenger to them in the next election.

It's the same case in most parliamentary systems, it's usually right of MPs guaranteed in a constitution. Tradition and procedures, however, tend to ensure party line votes, but there are no legal ramifications, if an MP rebels against the party line.

Re: Switzerland in the age of automatic exchange of banking information

#85

Post by jackjeff »

kelnos wrote: post #72
guerby wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In France we have representation for citizens living abroad since 2012: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constituencies_for_French_resi... "The constituencies for French residents overseas are eleven French constituencies, each electing one representative to the National Assembly."

My first thought was "wow, it would be cool if we had something like this in the US". But after a second, I realized that probably many people in the US are so rabidly nationalistic that if this were ever proposed, they would be against it, because "if you don't want to live in our great country, why do you deserve representation?" It's sad, really.

I’m not entirely convinced it’s fair for non residents to vote, especially those that have no intentions of coming back.

Election results for French expats are typically very different from those back home. LePen was not even close to be qualified for a second turn in the last presidential elections in London. Unless you live in France you would typically not be subject to any of the laws the new government would enact, so part of me thinks “why should I have a say in this?”

On the other hand, LePen proposed to strip French expats of their citizenship if they hold other nationalities, so I suppose having a say in the matter was only fair.

Re: Switzerland in the age of automatic exchange of banking information

#86

Post by cjslep »

dbrgn wrote: post #9

To me as a Swiss citizen, born in Switzerland, living in Switzerland, it's an impertinence that every time I open a bank account with a Swiss bank I have to fill out at least 1 form with information about my relation to the US, about my travels in the US and whether I might have to pay taxes there. As a side note, the only other country besides the US that collects taxes based on citizenship and not based on residenc…

The US tax comes from the Union in the Civil War. Fearing their wealthy base would flee to Europe to dodge Civil War tax hikes, they passed the citizenship based tax to ensure the war could continue to be funded.

Of course once a government adds a tax it's very hard to eliminate it, so here I am still paying a Civil War tax, an American living in Switzerland.

Re: Switzerland in the age of automatic exchange of banking information

#87

Post by jimhi »

jjcm wrote: post #58
dbrgn wrote: post #9

To me as a Swiss citizen, born in Switzerland, living in Switzerland, it's an impertinence that every time I open a bank account with a Swiss bank I have to fill out at least 1 form with information about my relation to the US, about my travels in the US and whether I might have to pay taxes there. As a side note, the only other country besides the US that collects taxes based on citizenship and not based on residenc…

For myself (a US citizen living abroad), my biggest annoyance isn't that I'm taxed on my income overseas, it's that it effectively is taxation without representation. Even though I'm paying tax overseas, there's no US Representative who fights for my interests. I have one who fights for the interests of the residents of a district I lived in years ago, but I have no relation to that anymore. I have a US senator who f…

I am also a US citizen abroad and I don't understand your annoyance. This is exactly why Foreign Earned Income Exclusion exists. For anyone not aware you don't pay taxes on 100k if you are out of the USA 330 days out of the year. 200k if you are married.

Do you qualify? Then you are exempt from such a ridiculous amount that it is hard to argue this.

Or maybe you visit the USA too much to qualify? In which case you do have enough ties that I think tax makes sense.

Re: Switzerland in the age of automatic exchange of banking information

#88

Post by [deleted] »

Causality1 wrote: post #54
nradov wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Swiss banks are in that position today because some of them engaged in criminal conspiracies to help US customers commit tax fraud. If they want to participate in the US financial system then they have to play by US rules. US citizens residing in other countries can still receive some services and protection from the US federal government. So it's completely fair to tax them for that. We can argue about the value of…

Multi-citizenship is a very strange concept anyway. Sure you can check the boxes and countries A and B consider you a citizen, but it's bizarre to me that one nation would let you swear loyalty to another without revoking your citizenship. The naturalization oath of allegiance, at least the American one, is very explicit about conflicts of interest like that but we've just sort of chosen not to enforce those parts of…

[deleted]

Re: Switzerland in the age of automatic exchange of banking information

#89

Post by Erlich_Bachman »

colechristensen wrote: post #28
Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every single bank in every country that wishes to use USD is in that position today, it is not related to whether they were shown to help in some criminal activity. > US citizens residing in other countries can still receive some services and protection from the US federal government. Seriously, like what? In how many percent of situations does this ever come up. Sure it's more than >0, but if it is like 1$/person do…

For starters the first $103,900 is tax free if you qualify and are living abroad. What it comes down to is that because of its size and economic power there is an enormous incentive for wealthy people who earn their income (in an actual sense, not a tax law menagerie sense) in the US to try to avoid US taxes by living abroad and moving assets, their "home", etc outside of US jurisdiction while still in reality earnin…

> One of the basic benefits is always being able to return to the US. Being inside American borders is very much safer than being anywhere else if/when the next major global military issue arises.

Well to be fair, once you move back in you will already start paying taxes again. This "benefit" is already paid for by you paing taxes when you effectively become resident again after moving inside the country again. Exactly like it works for any other country right now. This is questionable as a benefit while you're not living there.

> You also get the benefits of the US legal system if you maintain ties, investments, etc.

You get those benefits even if you just do some business in US as a foreigner. By this logic, should US also tax worldwide income of anyone who does any business in it and relies somehow on its legal system? Cmon this is a huge stretch. Also if you maintain ties, investments, this means that you are already helping the country by either supporting business or outright keeping your capital in the country and helping it by investing in it. You are ALREADY helping the country. And by this logic the country is supposed to tax you further to what puniush you for helping it?

Re: Switzerland in the age of automatic exchange of banking information

#90

Post by zhdc1 »

dbrgn wrote: post #9

To me as a Swiss citizen, born in Switzerland, living in Switzerland, it's an impertinence that every time I open a bank account with a Swiss bank I have to fill out at least 1 form with information about my relation to the US, about my travels in the US and whether I might have to pay taxes there. As a side note, the only other country besides the US that collects taxes based on citizenship and not based on residenc…

As an American citizen living in Switzerland, it's somewhat of an impertinence that I'm essentially limited to using one bank - Post Finance - when Germany and a number of other countries with large expat populations here now ask for and receive the same information on their citizens.

Edit: I also want to add that you're referring to income taxes. Several European countries collect wealth tax on global assets.

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